The foundations of the spiritual path

Islam is in itself an invitation to listen to the message, without any prejudices, so that the innate wakes up, this part buried by each, which naturally tends towards divine transcendence. SURATE The citywhich evokes the harshness of human existence, made of struggles and trials, is an invitation to overcome the obstacles of the ego and a hostile environment to meet the Supreme Being.

The quest for truth begins with the concentration of all being on a crucial questioning: that of the raison d’être and becoming after earthly life. The channel of the perception of the heart, alone capable of understanding this vital questioning, is obstructed by the rhythms of life imposed by postmodern societies, materialized by an aggressive visual and sound environment, the reign of all-publicity, an incentive To always consume more, via the media flow which overwhelms and obscures the spirits.

The image society conditions and reflects this reality of a superficial lifestyle, devoid of meaning, drowned by material considerations never satisfied. The notion of path, abstract for Cartesian minds, is essential to understand the spiritual purposes of Islam and the role it assigns to being. Islam considers that the revelation of God to humanity has been accomplished through men similar to ordinary people.

These messengers, carrying a universal truth, are each united to God by a submission pact. Giving meaning to the life of each being is the very essence of the mission of the messengers of God. Islam designs belonging and allegiance to God as a purpose which is expressed at every moment of life. The call of God to men represents the spirit of the Koranic message. Each being naturally feels from birth their belonging to God.

This original faith was very early confronted with the effects of education, of a family, social and cultural environment sometimes devoid of any reference to the revealed truth. Western societies, whose moral landmarks are subject to secular universalism, confine religious beliefs to the private sphere. The ideal of “success”, underpinned by a human substrate which mixes individualism and materialism, results in the ambition of climbing on the scale of social and professional promotion, whatever the price. This purpose of “man-machine to consume”, in general indifference, mine postmodern societies.

In this humanity, drowned in a deafening media noise, the call of the divine finds it difficult to echo. The emerging movements around the world, of contestation, of men and women who mobilize locally and in networks to return to man his dignity, set themselves up as the spokespersons of all left behind the economic system and liberal social which marks flagrant signs of breathlessness. Government programs and acts of charity of states rich in favors of poor countries have more intended to display a semblance of world justice, which hardly masks the overwhelming reality of globalized hunger than to definitively eradicate the origins of evil generated by lawless capitalism that has long proclaimed its capacity to offer everyone an ideal of well -being, theAmerican Way of Life.

The nature bonus, buried, buried, under socio-educational, psychological, cultural, ideological substrates, struggles to hear the call of God. The world has attended the bankruptcy of the main systems of antagonistic political and economic thinking systems from the twentieth century: Marxist theory of class struggle and the proletarian uprising, intrinsically cut off from all spirituality, that of liberal capitalism in turmoil.

The latter appeared for a time, under the effect of the globalization and the prevail of American leadership, as the most accomplished solution, hence the adhesion of many countries to its values.

In turn, these models, not flawless, disintegrate, victims of their Tares and intrinsic violence, despite the apparent progress they may have aroused for humanity. They could not materialize, despite their aspirations, an ideal of man based on justice, equity, solidarity, social peace and between peoples, respect for the fundamental rights of each, while preserving The unity and cohesion of the populations of the destruction of inter -generation, intergenerational, individualism, communitarianism, and any form of segregation and hatred.

The sociologist Edgar Morin explains his perception of well -being and his limits as they are conceived in the West: “ And yet, more and more will appear to advanced societies, if they continue their race for prosperity, the irrationalism of rationalized existence, atrophy of a life without real communication with others as without creative realization, alienation in the world of objects and appearances. The fury crises of young people, the existential torments of intellectuals (sometimes grotesque), the spiritualist neuroses of the bourgeois of Passy are already the symptoms of a crisis which undoubtedly becomes widespread one day. But it will be necessary that the civilization of well-being has been experienced thoroughly, it will have to really realize in civilization of abundance, so that its own criticism is born, its own beyond (1).

Responding to the call of God, constitutes for man the means to free himself from the obstacles of the prisoner ego, the psychic and social weights, the dominant conformist spirit, devoted blindly to the cause of the consumptionist model and the appearance . Jean Baudrillard, sociologist and committed philosopher, stigmatizes a society where appearing inevitably prevails over being: ” We no longer have time to seek an identity in the archives, in a memory, nor in a project or a future. We need an instantaneous memory, an immediate connection, a kind of advertising identity that can be verified in the very moment. Thus, what is wanted today is no longer so much health, which is a state of organic equilibrium, but an ephemeral, hygienic and advertising of the body – much more a performance than an ideal state (…). Everyone is looking for their look. As it is no longer possible to draw argument from your own existence, all you have to do is make an act of appearance without worrying about being, or even being watched (…). This is not even Narcissism, it is an extraversion without depth, a kind of advertising ingenuity where everyone becomes the impressario of their own appearance (…)(2).

Being yourself becomes an ephemeral performance, a disenchanted mannerism in a world without ways. The existential question, of the raison d’être, of the presence on earth, embarrasses and integrates the register of taboo subjects and therefore is relegated to the depths of consciences. In a society of the image where the enchanting and disperse media hammering, the purposes of the individual, incessantly pressed by time, are confined to his immediate and ephemeral development in work, to his ever more superficial need to consume , to be entertained.

The sustainability of this very fragile life balance is dependent on the vagaries of a system where stability is paid in time of crisis at the cost of the always present feeling of professional insecurity, stress and even refusal of life. The developments of The sacred family institution, refuge value, the foundations of which are threatened by a materialist thought issued by all morals, announce for many intellectuals the advent of a new “social era ».

The globalization of the economy characterized by the diktat of multinationals threatening the subsistence of sovereign nation states, exchanges, culture and the “standardization” of lifestyles, are the signs of a major upheaval which announces the end of an era where the individual represents only a simple number dissolved in the world system: ” The world exploded as a result of the progressive planetization of the organizational and functioning mechanisms of the various fields of economic activity, as well as socio -cultural life and the environment can no longer be based entirely on the structures put in place Formerly and formerly. The transition turns out to be difficult, because the breaks are more numerous and more ample than flexible developments. Confrontations, conflicts and clashes are multiplying. But the movement continues despite all the turbulence that is emerging (3).

The question of the meaning of life dissipates in the generalized indifference which characterizes our public spaces. On an individual scale, if the question punctually challenges the mind, it is quickly bailed out to make room for more earth concerns.

(1) E. Morin, 1994, SociologyFayard, Paris, p. 282.

(2) J. Baudrillard, 1990, The transparency of evilGalileo editions, Paris, p. 31.

(3) G. Wackerman, 1995, From national space to globalizationellipses, p. 119.